FATHER GINO BURRESI
- THE PADRE PIO THAT GOT
CAUGHT OUT UNLIKE THE ORIGINAL!
Father Gino Burresi is someone alive today who makes exactly the same claims as
St Padre Pio. Yet it is known that this man is not a saint. And charges of
sexual abuse have been made against him and the Vatican has banned his ministry.
Gino still has his supporters though. When Gino could get away with his claims
for so long today how much easier could it have been for Pio who lived decades
ago in a world where communication and science was less efficient to do that?
And Pio was more secluded than Gino as well which helped a lot. The only reason
we know that Gino is not a saint is because he unlike Pio got caught in such a
way that there was no room for anybody to come along to credibly distort the
facts and leave him smelling of roses.
FROM CHRISTIAN ORDER MAGAZINE
The outstanding Fatima priest Fr Robert Fox- was a prominent promoter of Fr Gino
Burresi (known as "Brother Gino"). Originally a member of the Oblates of the
Virgin Mary, an order founded in 1816 by Italian priest Bruno Lanteri, Burresi
became a devotee of the Fatima revelations in the 1950s, and was the driving
force behind the creation of a Marian sanctuary in San Vittorino, outside Rome.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Burresi acquired a worldwide reputation as a mystic. He
was alleged to bear the stigmata, to have the "odour of sanctity," to be able to
read souls and also produce paintings and other artwork miraculously. Not
ordained until 1983, in his early fifties, Fr Burresi left the Oblates of the
Virgin Mary in 1992 to found a new order, the Congregation of the Servants of
the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This included an order of nuns, whose entire
formation he personally controlled with an iron hand. According to intrepid
'vision-buster' Rick Salbato, who had investigated Burresis for ten years and
blew the whistle early on, "over 8,000,000 people" worldwide believed him to be
a prophet. As donations poured in, "hundreds of persons from Italy and beyond
came to him every day seeking comfort, including high-ranking prelates,
politicians, and ambassadors. From the faraway Philippines, then-president
Corazon Aquino sent one of her messengers to have a rosary blessed by this man
in the odor of sanctity."
Impressed with the fact that a priest of Fr Fox's standing had penned The Call
of Heaven: Bro. Gino, stigmatist (1982), I myself used his book periodically as
an evangelical tool, handing several copies to friends and family in the
mid-80s. Lacking experience and knowledge, I didn't pause to reflect on the
convenient propaganda that presented Burresi as the spiritual son and successor
of Padre Pio; his having purportedly acquired the stigmata on the very day Padre
Pio died. I cringe at my youthful credulity. After all, what were the odds of
God raising up, Hollywood-style, another priest-stigmatist immediately upon the
demise of the only such priest in the entire history of the Church? ... D'oh!
It turned out, of course, that Burresi was a wicked fraud. His own superiors
finally brought charges against him but a Vatican investigation cleared him,
reprimanding the superiors instead — small wonder when some investigators were
supporters of Burresi! These included then-secretary of the Congregation for
Religious, and future cardinal, Vincenzo Fagiolo ("He came to me often for
confession," Burresi revealed). In a three-page appeal to John Paul II against
this cover-up, dated 22 November 1988, the superiors listed their accusations:
consummated homosexual acts with numerous young men, kidnapping for sexual
purposes, violation of the seal of the sacrament of penance.
Another investigation dismissed the appeal, this time sacking the superiors! Fr.
Burresi was to remain in the diocese of Volterra (Tuscany) to continue his work,
with the sole stipulation that he could no longer work with young men pursuing
vocations. "Five years later, however, in 1997," writes Salbato, "the
Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith opened another investigation on him.
The case was concluded on May 10, 2002, with a decree signed by Ratzinger... The
sentence takes into consideration the fact that the accusations were made past
the statute of limitations, so it neither condemns nor punishes Fr. Gino
Burresi. But the 20-page report accompanying the decree [signed by the four
investigating prelates]... lists the accusations against the priest: violation
of the seal of the confession, the illegitimate use against the penitent of
confidential information revealed during confession, defamation, violation of
the right to privacy, incitement to disobedience against superiors, false
mysticism, and claims of apparitions, visions, and supernatural messages." The
sexual abuse was also factored in and contributed to the final judgement,
Vatican sources confided.
This unresolved case, apparently filed away forever, "was reopened, and a much
more severe conclusion was reached – with the presiding judge being Ratzinger,
who has since become pope." On 27 may 2005, the Congregation for the Doctrine of
the Faith issued the decree against the 73-year-old Fr. Burresi, The decree
announced by the Italian bishops conference, revoking his faculties and removing
him from public ministry, drew remarkably little public notice considering his
fame and notoriety. Pope Benedict confirmed the decree in forma specifica i.e.
he made its conclusions his own, and no appeal is possible.
Satanic inspiration
Some were perplexed by Gino's trickery — like his ability to discern hidden
secrets about people that nobody could have known. It seemed to surpass the mere
hypnotic control he exercised over his nuns. Yet whether preternatural or not,
the fact that Satan was busily at work all the while was signalled by a
fundamental feature of his scam. Rick Salbato summed it up thus: "If you want to
go to San Giovanni Rotondo and see the home of Padre Pio, you must go to Rome
and take a train south. If you decide to see Gino, you must go to Rome and take
a bus north. If you go to San Vittorino, you will never get to San Giovanni. For
many years there were tours of Fatima, Lourdes, and San Giovanni. Then these
tours became Fatima, Lourdes, and San Vittorino. Get the point?"
This mirrors Medjugorje. For 30 years, inestimable numbers of Catholics have
travelled to Bosnia-Herzegovina, often repeatedly at enormous cost, instead of
journeying to major shrines like Lourdes and Fatima. Next to the fostering of
disobedience, this distraction/diversion, especially undermining the awareness,
understanding and practise of the crucial Five First Saturdays of reparation
requested by the Blessed Mother via Sister Lucia, is a monumental strike against
Heaven's guaranteed plan for world peace. For according to Sr Lucia, "Whether
the world has war or peace depends on the practice of this devotion, along with
the consecration of Russia to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. This is why I desire
its propagation so ardently, especially because this is also the will of our
dear Mother in Heaven" [19 March 1939].
COMMENT: Medjugorje has been promoted by lying priests and priests who should
know better but who do not want to. This happened with Gino too.